"Hi Bob," says Mayko, sipping on a fruit smoothie as she finds him in the rec room with the film projector. She's still sweaty from doing some work outside, but that seems to be her constant state of being this week. "What are you watching?"
"Shakespeare in Love," Bob replies, not needing to look over to know he's speaking to Mayko. Even here, her voice calms him some and he seems to relax just a little. "Have you seen it before?"
"A few times," Mayko admits with a bit of a grin, taking a seat next to him and tucking one foot up under her. "Guilty pleasures and all that. Are you enjoying it?"
He answers only with a short nod, but it's not entirely the truth. Not to say it isn't a movie he wouldn't enjoy under other circumstances, but right now, his heart isn't entirely in it.
"I've met him," he says after a moment, nodding at the screen again. "William Shakespeare. Not the real one, but that one. Him."
Mayko looks at the movie, then at Bob, then nods her head. She hasn't met Shakespeare personally - and wouldn't that be a trip - but she knows what Bob is talking about.
"That's pretty cool," she says, and waits to figure out just how Bob feels about it.
"William Shakespeare as played by Joseph Fiennes," he says as though to clarify even though he's fairly sure Mayko understands already. "David and I also met Clarice Starling," he says then, still watching Mayko carefully. "Only, I thought she was Jodie Foster."
He hopes Mayko gets what he's saying without him having to actually say it. Of anyone back at the lab, she was always the first to listen and take his sometimes outlandish theories seriously and he hopes she doesn't balk at him this time.
He nods, the action quick and easy, eyes still imploring as he looks up at her. "I thought maybe they just thought they were fictional," he says, still trying to make the pieces fit in his head, trying to reveal the entire puzzle. "But they're not. They really are fictional."
"Yeah, they are," she agrees with him, forgetting the movie and setting the remains of her smoothie down next to her. "But they don't know it, Bob. As far as they're concerned, they're real people, just like us."
Bob's brow furrows a little, obviously trying to figure out how that make sense, his lips tugging into a slight frown. "But, if they're fictional, how can we interact with them?" he asks, thinking outloud more than anything. "Their not just figments of our imagination. They're real. Tangible."
Mayko shrugs, helpless to answer that one. "I don't know," she says honestly. "I don't know, Bob. Maybe it's part of the whole thing that's going on here. They've cloned dinosaurs, maybe they've... created these people, too. Somehow."
"You think they were created?" Bob asks, his face almost clearing a little, eager at the possibility, a new idea. "Jill's been looking into the clone aspect," he says, still just thinking outloud. "If there are clones of people, I suppose maybe..." He trails off, his frown returning again, brows creasing as he shakes his head. "I don't know," he murmurs. "Especially the way people just... turn up. William Shakespeare told me he's been here only a few months. You'd think someone here would know if he'd just been created."
"It's the only thing I've come up with so far that makes sense," says Mayko. "I haven't developed a full-fledged theory yet, but I figure anyone that can bring back the dinosaurs probably has the technology to do something like this."
It was the most comforting explanation she could come up with, anyway, even if she didn't entirely believe it. Gus had been a character in a movie, and she was fairly thoroughly convinced that he was real.
"But, who's brought back the dinosaurs?" Bob asks, his head still cocked to the side. "None of the technology we've seen here could be considered advanced."
"Someone who's not here anymore," says Mayko. That, again, is her best guess based on the evidence. "Obviously someone did, after all, and I don't know about you, but the fence that keeps them in is a little beyond what I've seen before."
"I haven't seen the fence yet," Bob admits, still frowning slightly. "Haven't seen the beach either. Or anything that's more than about a hundred meters beyond the Compound."
Reply
Reply
Reply
"I've met him," he says after a moment, nodding at the screen again. "William Shakespeare. Not the real one, but that one. Him."
Reply
"That's pretty cool," she says, and waits to figure out just how Bob feels about it.
Reply
He hopes Mayko gets what he's saying without him having to actually say it. Of anyone back at the lab, she was always the first to listen and take his sometimes outlandish theories seriously and he hopes she doesn't balk at him this time.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
It was the most comforting explanation she could come up with, anyway, even if she didn't entirely believe it. Gus had been a character in a movie, and she was fairly thoroughly convinced that he was real.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment